“We are still ashamed of our own History”

LusotopieRecherches politiques internationales sur les espacesissus de lrsquohistoire et de la colonisation portugaises

XV(2) | 2008Histoires drsquoAsie

ldquoWe are still ashamed of our own HistoryrdquoInterviewing ex-combatants of the portuguese colonial war (1961-1974)

laquo Nous avons encore honte de notre histoire raquo Entretiens avec drsquoanciens

combattants des guerres coloniales portugaises (1961-1974)

laquo Ainda temos vergonha da nossa histoacuteri raquo Entrevistas com antigos combatentes

das guerras coloniais portuguesas (1961-1974)

Acircngela Campos

Electronic versionURL httpjournalsopeneditionorglusotopie612ISSN 1768-3084

PublisherAssociation des rechercheurs de la revue Lusotopie Brill Karthala

Printed versionDate of publication 20 November 2008Number of pages 107-126ISSN 1257-0273

Electronic referenceAcircngela Campos laquo ldquoWe are still ashamed of our own Historyrdquo raquo Lusotopie [Online] XV(2) | 2008 Onlinesince 01 February 2016 connection on 30 April 2019 URL httpjournalsopeneditionorglusotopie612

Tous droits reacuteserveacutes

copy Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden 2008 Lusotopie XV (2) 107-126Also available online ndash wwwbrillnl

ldquoWE ARE STILL ASHAMED OF OUR OWN HISTORYrdquoInterviewing ex-combatants of the Portuguese colonial war

(1961-1974)

This paper is focused on the memories of ex-combatants of the Portuguese colonial war in Africa (1961-1974) It addresses the Portuguese colonial conflict mainly in terms of its social memory exploring the importance of the ex-com-batantsrsquo individual interpretations and representations of the conflict This paper argues that the absence of extensive historical reflection on this subject highlights the importance of its lived memories especially as a means of challenging the idea of war memory as a source of shame for the veterans and for Portuguese society in general

Firstly the paper presents a brief overview of the current developments on the war memory field mentioning other national case studies Secondly it dwells on the public memory of the conflict and the historical identity of the Portuguese war veterans Thirdly and finally it will pose some questions on the process of collecting these personal memories namely the oral history practice involved in interviewing these ex-combatants

laquo Nous avons encore honte de notre histoire raquoEntretiens avec drsquoanciens combattants de la guerre coloniale portugaise (1961-1974)

Cet article est fondeacute sur les meacutemoires des anciens combattants de la Guerre coloniale portugaise en Afrique (1961-1974) et aborde le conflit surtout dans les termes de sa meacutemoire sociale explorant lrsquoimportance des interpreacutetations et repreacutesentations personnelles des anciens combattants relativement au conflit Lrsquoarticle soutient que lrsquoabsence drsquoune reacuteflexion historique eacutelargie sur le sujet souligne lrsquoimportance des meacutemoires veacutecues speacutecialement comme moyen de mettre en cause lrsquoideacutee que les meacutemoires de guerre sont motif de honte pour les veacuteteacuterans et la socieacuteteacute portugaise en geacuteneacuteral

Lrsquoarticle preacutesente drsquoabord briegravevement un eacutetat des travaux en matiegravere de meacutemoires de guerre Ensuite il porte sur la meacutemoire publique du conflit et lrsquoidentiteacute historique des veacuteteacuterans de guerre portugais Enfin il questionne le processus de recueil de ces meacutemoires personnelles notamment la pratique de lrsquohistoire orale inheacuterente agrave lrsquoacte drsquointerviewer ces anciens combattants

laquo Ainda temos vergonha da nossa histoacuteri raquoEntrevistas com antigos combatentes da guerra colonia portuguesa (1961-1974)

Este artigo centra-se nas memoacuterias de ex-combatentes da Guerra Colonial Portuguesa em Aacutefrica (1961-1974) e aborda o conflito colonial portuguecircs sobre-tudo em termos da sua memoacuteria social explorando a importacircncia das interpre-taccedilotildees e representaccedilotildees pessoais dos ex-combatentes relativamente ao conflito Este artigo sustenta que a ausecircncia de reflexatildeo histoacuterica alargada acerca deste assunto salienta a importacircncia das suas memoacuterias vividas especialmente enquanto meio de pocircr em causa a ideia de que as memoacuterias de guerra satildeo motivo de vergonha para os veteranos e para a sociedade portuguesa em geral

Em primeiro lugar o artigo apresenta um breve resumo dos actuais desenvol-vimentos na aacuterea das memoacuterias de guerra mencionando outros casos de estudo

108 acircngela campos

nacionais De seguida refere-se agrave memoacuteria puacuteblica do conflito e agrave identidade histoacuterica dos veteranos de guerra portugueses Em terceiro e uacuteltimo lugar coloca algumas questotildees quanto ao processo de recolha destas memoacuterias pessoais nomeadamente agrave praacutetica de histoacuteria oral inerente ao acto de entrevistar estes ex-combatentes

Any data collected for a war memory research project must be critically analysed and placed within a wider socio-historical context bearing in mind the recent

developments concerning war memory studies particularly those deriving from national contexts where veteransrsquo war memories have been unrecognised1 Although the exhaustive analysis of theoretical concepts is outside the scope of this paper a word must be said about the enormous expansion of war memory studies in the last decades Indeed there are numerous international works that have contributed to this widening of academic research and critical enquiry Authors such as G Dawson2 M Evans3 F Lorenz4 K Lunn5 M Roper6 E Sivan7 A Thomson8 J Winter9 and many others have opened up new perspectives within the field of war memory Nowadays researchers are well aware that history writing is extremely dependent on the socio-political context within which the remembering of a particular past takes place both on a collective and individual level War memories are no exception as they reveal the way in which the con-flicts are perceived from the standpoint of the present In this context I would like to highlight Ashplant et al and their groundbreaking work (2004) in which these authors have identified the principal theoretical approaches to the study of war memory and commemoration proposing the so-called ldquointegratedrdquo approach which stresses the existing inter-relations that link the individual civil society and the state and accounting for the specific and evolving social cultural political and individual contexts of war representation and meaning-making At present most war memory research being undertaken takes these theoretical developments into account

War memory a developing field

In terms of studies concerning specific national contexts the works of F Lorenz and M Evans just to cite these examples illuminate the difficult questions arising

1 This paper reflects the findings of a DPhil research still in progress and draws from field-work undertaken in Portugal between 2005 and 2007 Its main purpose is to bring attention to the issues arising from an oral history study on the Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974) a topic largely neglected by contemporary Portuguese history Therefore I would like to emphasise that I am not yet in a position to present extended and theoretical conclusions

2 Ashplant Dawson amp Roper 2004 Dawson 1994 Dawson Leydesdorff amp Rogers 19993 Evans 1997a 1997b4 Lorenz 1999 2002 20035 Evans amp Lunn 19976 Roper 20007 Sivan amp Winter 19998 Thomson 1994 19989 Sivan amp Winter 1999

interviewing ex-combatants of the portuguese colonial war 109

from armed conflicts which are not collectively recognised within their societies Indeed the deliberate use of forgetting and sometimes distorting is not exclusive to the Portuguese colonial conflict The same applies for instance to the war fought by the British colonial state against the Mau Mau guerrillas of Kenya during 1952-60 (Kershaw 1997) Similarly in writing about the Malvinas war (1982) F Lorenz tells us about a nation which is not comfortable with its veter-ans (1999 95-112 2002 2003) Likewise M Evans states that the Algerian War (1954-1962) ldquofor many years has been a taboo subject in Francerdquo thus stressing his wish as a historian to ldquorecover a neglected historyrdquo (Alexander et al 2002 3 12) Like in Portugal in the French case the general memory of the colonial war is not positive and is profoundly divisive Veteransrsquo memories have not been sys-tematically affirmed by public rituals of remembrance with consequences for individual war memories and their expression

According to G Dawson et al in these societies ldquoan attempt to come to terms with a traumatic pastrdquo can be found regarding the colonial conflicts (1999 11) Very often this process is accompanied by public and official amnesia As K Plummer stresses memory starts to be seen much more as a ldquosocially shared experiencerdquo (2001 235) and much less as an individual psychological phenomenon Wars enter peoplersquos cultural memory when those who have an individual memory of war want to pass it on to their society Therefore the political and socio-historical context where individual memories exist is instrumental in this process of integration In this sense public amnesia and official marginalisation can silence individual memory due to the fact that there is no environment favourable to remembering

In this context oral history is a way of challenging and also explaining the silence as well as of offering recognition In my oral history practice I aim at an explanation of this silence and its effects whilst at the same time recovering taboo memories

In fact many veterans still do not talk because their memories are traumatic or are afraid of the possible repercussions of telling what they did in the past In this sense public silence is in some instances sustained by a psychological reluctance to talk on the part of some ex-combatants and thus certain types of memories remain private and unassimilated Breaking the silence those who talk are in search of ldquoa past [they] can live withrdquo both individually and as mem-bers of a society in a continual memory-making process of ldquocomposurerdquo as argued by A Thomson (1994 8-9) Therefore both personal memories and per-sonal narratives evolve over time as a result of composure through which the veterans try to find memories they feel reasonably comfortable with being aware of and affected by the public to whom the narratives are expressed (Roper 2000 181-204) In this process available cultural narratives ndash other veteransrsquo memories books television war veteransrsquo campaigns and similar ndash contribute to the personal narrative These two postures adopted by the veterans ndash talking or remaining silent ndash symbolise a split between a desire to forget about a traumatic past and a necessity to link personal memory and historical memory


The public memory of the Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974)

In order to gain a better understanding of the Portuguese context an introductory explanation is necessary The Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974) consisted of three fighting fronts in Angola Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique The conflict started in Angola in 1961 at a time when colonialism was severely condemned internationally and ceased in 1974 In June 1951 the terminology ldquocoloniesrdquo had been officially replaced by the phrase ldquooverseas provincesrdquo and the same process was applied to ldquoPortuguese Colonial Empirerdquo which was then renamed ldquoUltramar Portuguecircsrdquo this last expression meaning something like ldquoPortuguese territory beyond the seardquo The Forccedilas Armadas Portuguesas (Portuguese Armed Forces) were meant to reflect the colonial policy of the regime and so during thirteen years of war about 820000 men were mobilised and sent to Africa10 This was a long and violent guerrilla war ndash officially called ldquooverseas campaignsrdquo ndash fought thousands of miles away in another continent At the end of the conflict on the Portuguese side it was estimated that there had been 8831 dead around 30000 wounded close to 4500 mutilated and over 100000 soldiers suffering from posttraumatic stress disorders11

Despite the strong oppression felt under the dictatorial regime considerably large sections of Portuguese society were against the colonial war Although in the majority of cases this opposition was not clearly expressed many individuals found ways of manifesting their disagreement with the conflict This is noted by A Pinto who stresses that

ldquoeven though the social impact [of the war] which translated into an increasingly anti-war public opinion is hard to reconstruct given the dictatorial nature of the political system in force in Portugal at the time the war and its parade of violence marked Portuguese society in a long lasting wayrdquo (Pinto 2001 48)

Initially in 1961 when the conflict started in Angola there was a widespread conception that accepted ndash although with some variation ndash that Portugal and its colonies formed a political unity a common motherland The regime amply used this notion in its propaganda in favour of an immediate armed action against the so-called ldquoterroristsrdquo ldquoPara Angola rapidamente e em forccedilardquo (ldquoTo Angola quickly and massivelyrdquo) was the motto and brutal images of mutilated Portuguese settlers were shown in the Portuguese media The initial reaction was one of defence of the colonial territories In the words of one of my respondents

ldquo[ ] people thought that we had indeed every right to our colonies [ ] and maybe we didnrsquot find it such an absurdity to go there and defend sacrifice ourselves [ ] for the motherland [ ] generally people thought it was a fair warrdquo12

10 Portugalrsquos population in 1960 was of 8889392 people The mobilised forces equalled to over 7 of the active population 40 of the national budget was channelled to National Defence See Afonso 1994

11 Medeiros 2000 201-221 citing Guerra 199612 L Joseacute interviewed by Acircngela Campos in Viana do Castelo Portugal July 2007 [All the

interviews mentioned in the text are by Angela Campos]


However from the beginning of the war and unlike what the official propaganda stated anti-war positions were expressed in Portuguese society The dissenting voice of the Portuguese Communist Party warned as early as December 1961 that the colonial wars that would ensue would be a ldquonational disaster for the Portuguese peoplerdquo (Bebiano 2002 293-313) Besides this political party which manifested its anti-war views from the first moment the anti-colonial feeling was also significantly strong within University students Indeed after a number of student actions and strikes in 1962 the colonial cause rapidly began to lose adherents The number of dead and wounded became more visible and many chose to leave the country before conscription This is stressed by R Bebiano

ldquoThe flux of youngsters fleeing incorporation in the army and mobilisation for the colonial war was indeed amazing without any resemblance to what happened then in the other European states in 1961 the percentage of absentees was 116 in 62 it had already increased to 128 in 1963 reached 156 in 1964 had risen to 165 between 1965 and 1968 was around 19 and between 70 and 72 stayed very close to 21 (Ibid 302)rdquo13

Nonetheless most young men of military age chose to comply with military ser-vice There were some constraints to be taken into account

ldquoI thought of that [running away] but where would I go to I didnrsquot have anyone didnrsquot have any money [ ] I risked it like many others in good faith in defence of darling motherland [ ] people were afraid of taking chances at risk of being caughtrdquo14

Those who refused to comply with military service instead of deserting would rather miss the inspection a procedure associated with the authoritiesrsquo decision on whether an individual would or would not leave the country (Martelo 2001)

Although the opposition to the colonial war was expressed more systematically by different non-unified left-wing movements some individual forms of resistance were increasingly being felt within urban areas among intellectuals and youngsters particularly students or those who had been integrated in the Armed Forces ndash the groups that in a way or another would be more affected by the continuation of the conflict ldquoI was already rather politised at the time we were already having meetings here in Portordquo states one interviewee among others15 As the war inten-sified and the number of fighting fronts increased spreading into Guinea and Mozambique opposition to the conflict tended to become more noticeable The war seemed to prolong itself indefinitely and for many students and military men this meant an interest in political and ideological literature and an increasing awareness of African national movements Some personal testimonies reflect this reality ldquoMy knowledge about politics was not much but [ ] I couldnrsquot stand the system [ ] and talked to many University studentsrdquo16 In Portugal the reper-cussions of May of 68 in France meant a strengthening of these anticolonial positions and a stronger opposition to the regime particularly in 1969 when

13 Quoting Estado-Maior do Exeacutercito 1988 254-27014 B Antoacutenio interviewed in Campo Maior Portugal July 200715 G Viriato interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 16 B Antoacutenio interviewed in Campo Maior Portugal July 2007


students of the Universities of Lisbon and Coimbra protested more vehemently The more politised student movements in Lisbon Coimbra and Porto some of them with connections to the working youth became even more radical after the academic year of 1970-1971 In 1973 the opposition forces grew in strength and during the Congresso da Oposiccedilatildeo Democraacutetica (Congress of Democratic Opposition) which took place in Aveiro the importance of ldquodeveloping an ample national campaign demanding the end of the warrdquo was stressed (Bebiano 2002 296)

Certain groups expressed these views in a more active and sometimes radical manner Some examples just to cite a few were FPLN Frente Patrioacutetica de Libertaccedilatildeo Nacional (Patriotic Front of National Liberation) ndash created in 1962 one of the main aspects of its propaganda was the opposition to the war LUAR Liga de Uniatildeo e Acccedilatildeo Revolucionaacuteria (League of Revolutionary Unity and Action) was cre-ated in 1967 in 1970 emerged ARA Acccedilatildeo Revolucionaacuteria Armada (Armed Revolutionary Action) ndash the Communist Partyrdquos armed branch that supported the fight against fascism and the colonial war MRPP Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado (Reorganising Movement of the Labouring Class Party) appeared in 1970 the BR Brigadas Revolucionaacuterias (Revolutionary Brigades) arise in 1972 and in 1973 the CLAC Comiteacutes de Luta Anticolonial e Anti-Imperialista (Committees of Anticolonial and Anti-Imperialistic Struggle)

As R Bebiano points out some of the left-wing struggles also involved cultural tools like the literary production of the 1960s (Fernando Assis Pacheco and Manuel Alegre for example) and the famous intervention songs about the war which were powerful yet veiled weapons against the regimersquos colonial policy The songs of Joseacute Afonso for instance influenced anti-war positions both in the streets and in the barracks and became an icon of the resistance against the dictatorial regime Indeed

All this approach of an important sector of Portuguese society to anti-war resistance and defence of independence conceptions was thus aroused and stimu-lated in the domain of political practice and cultural activity by the different oppositions to the left of the regime (Bebiano 2002 47)

Apart from the militant efforts of the left some Catholic activists organised anti-war demonstrations debates and vigils and seemed to become increasingly keen on mobilising peoplersquos consciences against the colonial conflict These pro-peace actions although rather passive and careful not to politically provoke the regime in a direct way were particularly effective in the late 60s and early 70s the vigil of Capela do Rato in Lisbon on the 31st December 1972 being a great example of protest against the war (ibid 40-47)

Simultaneously many emigrated Portuguese people ndash some of them political exiles or deserters living in different countries like France or England for instance and most notably in Paris ndash were actively organising anti-war groups and actions of anti-fascist and anti-colonial political activism among workers (the so-called economic immigrants) dissidents and deserters There they could experience ldquohow it was to live in a democracyrdquo17

Although the student actions and the Armed Forcesrsquo dissatisfaction in the early 70s may perhaps be considered the most visible face of Portuguese societyrsquos

17 G Viriato interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 fled to France in 1968 before being conscripted


opposition the variety of combined actions and manifested views mentioned above had a notable impact on the public opinion about the continuation of the colo-nial war They encompassed geographic areas and social sectors that although probably not supporting these movements actively became more understanding of the reasons evoked by the latter and thus diverged more from the official propaganda concerning this matter

In fact with the conflict demanding more and more soldiers in the early 1970s many families were already affected by the colonial war in different ways However and regarding this conflict it has to be highlighted once again that due to ldquothe fascist and censorial character of the regimerdquo a great number of people in Portugal perhaps the majority of the masses ldquoignored the contours and its real dimensionrdquo and consequently ldquoeven today Portuguese society has great difficulties in discussing the colonial questionrdquo (L Rosaacuterio 2001 78-79) This recognition of their political unawareness is acknowledged by several interviewees who reflect various aspects of this reality If some emphasise the idea of duty ndash ldquoI didnrsquot have any political consciousness neither anyone had [ ] I was fulfilling a dutyrdquo18 ndash others point at the ideological influence of the political system in force ldquoI didnrsquot have either political or ideological conscience I was unable to interpret the facts I was also very much shaped by the values of the regime of Estado Novo through educa-tionrdquo19 For many the lack of information about the conflict was evident ndash ldquoI didnrsquot understand [the war] so well because my political training was nonexistentrdquo20 ndash and understanding the war was not a priority ldquoI didnrsquot know anything about politics [ ] the only politics I knew about was working and sup-porting my familyrdquo21 In many cases this contributed to a sense of uselessness and inadequacy regarding the presence of Portuguese troops in Africa

ldquo[ ] politically perhaps we were there because we were defending the motherland because Salazar said so [ ] we knew little about what the colonial war was [ ] and I to a certain extent completely unaware of what was going on was perhaps one of those who said lsquoof course we have to gorsquo later after being there I realised things were not quite like thatrdquo22

ldquo[ ]we were aware that we were doing nothing there [ ] I never saw a soldier fighting with the aim of winning the warrdquo23

To a great extent the feeling that this war had no purpose led to the 1974 revolution In fact on 25 April 1974 a democratic revolution put an end to almost fifty years of fascism virtually incarnated in the figure of Oliveira Salazar (1889-1969) and to the colonial war The Forccedilas Armadas played the leading role in the revolution ndash the same armed forces that had been fighting in Africa until then From 1974 on their image is almost exclusively associated with the democratic revolution About their participation in the colonial conflict there seems to be a persisting silence In the words of an officer

18 R Bento interviewed in Lisbon Portugal March 2006 19 F Abel interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 20 L Joseacute interviewed in Viana do Castelo Portugal July 2007 21 C Daniel interviewed in Leccedila da Palmeira Portugal August 2007 22 T Joseacute interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 23 F Antoacutenio interviewed in Valenccedila Portugal July 2007


ldquo[ ] the military should acknowledge that they were the most responsible for maintaining that regime [ ] we should admit that we collaborated in a dictatorial processrdquo24

Indeed according to one of the ex-combatants interviewed

ldquoSo if the war happened at the time of fascism [ ] we canrsquot run away from it we canrsquot run away from that reality ndash fascism old regime the war happened at that timerdquo25

If and quoting D Ritchie ldquopublic memory represents a societyrdquos collective con-ceptions about the pastrdquo (Ritchie 2003 36) the specificity of the Portuguese case appears to lie in this political contradiction the Armed Forces are simultaneously the men who were fighting for the maintenance of the Portuguese Colonial Empire in Africa and the democratic liberators of 1974 This political issue remains an extremely delicate subject in contemporary Portugal The ex-combatantsrsquo mother country was a dictatorial regime in 1961 and a newborn democracy in 1974 This unresolved tension between fascism and democracy right and left makes it even harder to remember the colonial conflict and its veterans Without a doubt this is not a consensual topic ldquothe colonial war was associated to fascism and since itrsquos shameful to be fascist or salazarist or such one has to forget these people [the ex-combatants]rdquo26

According to the principles of the old regime the end of the war was a shame-ful betrayal and meant the loss of national territory The new democratic Portugal accepted the right to independence of the former colonies and presented the war as a waste of time resources and human lives The official post-1974 discourse tends to follow this last view and put the colonial war into the context of fascism therefore placing a major emphasis on the democratic revolution

However these two views are not clearly demarcated and tend to cohabit They reveal divided individuals and a divided society in which there is no real national unity around the cultural memory of the war This is a personal social and political scar It is not comfortable to deal with Portugalrsquos dictatorial past and the collapse of its empire In this context the men who fought for it are a source of embarrassment Quoting the words of M Evans on the French Algerian war veterans the ex-combatants ldquoquickly became untidy reminders of outdated colo-nial valuesrdquo (Evans et al 1997 75) They remind civilian society of that particu-lar past

The fact that my research aims at an evaluation of the colonial wars in terms of its social memory places me as a researcher before an inescapable reality this memory has been for nearly three decades either rejected or ignored in Portugal both officially and individually The representations of the conflict have been especially in the immediate postwar period very scarce if not at all nonexistent The country has been perhaps too committed to its democratic and European integration to reflect on its recent past Indeed the colonial wars have been a subject avoided by Portuguese contemporary history something Portugal seems to

24 P Antoacutenio interviewed in Paccedilo de Arcos Portugal August 2007 25 L Joseacute interviewed in Viana do Castelo Portugal July 2007 26 Ibid


be ashamed of and willing to forget Quoting P de Medeiros one can even speak of a state of ldquocollective amnesiardquo an ldquoinability to address the effects of the colonial war on the nationrdquo (2000 202)

The relative absence of historical reflection on the Portuguese colonial wars ldquofrom belowrdquo stresses the importance of its lived memories In this case the potential for oral history to combat national silence and make these silent stories heard is manifestly evident Although there are a few possible exceptions to this situation (Antunes 1995) the prominence given to certain narratives within cultural memory is related to the power of those who recount the events normally impor-tant public figures and high rank military officers The experiences of these individuals are seen as more important than those of thousands of fighting men that do not have a direct access to political and cultural power A remarkable exception however is the piece written by C Matos Gomes for Nova Histoacuteria Militar de Portugal (New Military History of Portugal 2004) entitled ldquoQuotidianos da Guerra Colonialrdquo (ldquoEveryday Life of the Colonial Warrdquo) which traces the soldiersrdquo complete path from inspection to their return ndash when applicable Nonetheless according to authors like A Afonso and C Gomes (2001) who published an encyclopaedic study about the conflict the colonial war is still too recent an event in Portuguese history to be properly evaluated

Similarly the exploration of the realm of fiction as remarked by P de Medeiros (2000) was one of the first and most important means of access to war memories and its psychic traumas This is evident in the proliferation of novels alluding to the wars or about them that occurred after 1974 with a special emphasis on those published by Antoacutenio Lobo Antunes and Liacutedia Jorge27 In fact although confined to the aesthetic arena and limited to a restricted group which had access to publication these novels had their impact in the sense that they con-fronted the official silence Furthermore in this field the subsequent studies of R Azevedo Teixeira on the colonial war and Portuguese literary fiction have to be emphasized (1998 2001 2002 2004)

In spite of this decades-long silence one cannot refer to the public memory of the Portuguese colonial wars without introducing the concept of a certain ldquorevivalrdquo of the conflict particularly visible in the last few years The fact that in the last thirty years this subject has been addressed mainly by novelists and more recently by psychiatrists psychologists and journalists but not by professional historians is in itself quite revealing28 They represent recent efforts to break the silence The reality of the war has also been directly approached by war veteransrsquo associations through their diversified activities but this is a somewhat recent phe-nomenon APVG (Associaccedilatildeo Portuguesa de Veteranos de Guerra Portuguese Association of War Veterans) the most important and combative of them all having around 40000 associates was only founded in 1999 for instance

27 Os Cus de Judas (1979) and A Costa dos Murmuacuterios (1988) respectively 28 In this respect the work of A de Albuquerque a psychiatrist should be highlighted Albuquerque

is the author of several studies concerning PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) among the Portuguese war veterans and in the last years has been calling civil societyrsquos attention to the ex-combatantsrsquo psychic suffering PTSD is a term which first appeared in the American 1980srsquo psychiatric literature in the aftermath of the Vietnam war referring to the disturbances experienced by the US military veterans after the conflict See for instance Albuquerque 2003


J Ribeiro a journalist in his book Marcas da Guerra Colonial (Marks of the Colonial War) states that ldquothe shame reached such an extent that after 1974 the colonial war was cautiously swept away from the collective memoryrdquo (1999 8) In terms of official indifference the author stresses the absence of this topic from the his-tory curricula of state schools He urges the colonial conflict to be studied and revealed in order to overcome this ldquoopen wound of Portuguese societyrdquo Most interviewees agree with this view stating that ldquothrough school textbooksrdquo people should ldquoremember what happenedrdquo29 because

ldquoHistory exists so that Humanity can see it study it rethink it so that later one can do better differently or even to do justice not here [ ] here people try to forget bury everything that happened in the colonial war everythingrdquo30

Nonetheless a greater mobilisation of war veteransrsquo associations a growing num-ber of ex-combatants who have now retired and have initiated in many cases a life review process and even some signs of governmental attention concerning these matters have recently contributed to a visible shift in terms of how the colonial conflict and its former combatants are perceived Indeed in a case like this where a society has consistently refused to remember many war veterans have been trying to bring their memories into the public domain and are creating a ldquolistening spacerdquo (Dawson et al 1999 10) where the topic can be talked about more openly For instance 2004 the 30th anniversary of the 1974 revolution was a prolific year in terms of bringing the colonial war and the ex-combatants into the open There was substantial news coverage of war veteransrsquo meetings and other activities and the press manifested an interest in their stories This supports the idea that even if ndash quoting T Ashplant et al (2004 19) ndash a communityrsquos sense of shame can block ldquothe transformation of individual into sharedcommon memoriesrdquo it can also spur a remembering that is sectional or oppositional to silence This is particularly true of the Portuguese case now that the activity of smaller groups and publics made it possible to reach a wider audience and gain some cultural and political visibility Indeed if some resent their absence from public remembrance but remain silent others strive to find alternative forms of remembrance just like in the case of French veterans described by M Evans (1997 75-76)

More recent examples of this visibility can be found in the Portuguese media In fact between the 4th and 11th June 2007 Correio da Manhatilde one of the best-selling Portuguese newspapers published a series of articles entitled ldquoMemoacuterias de Guerrardquo (ldquoWar Memoriesrdquo) which highlighted first-person war experiences Another example was the media attention received by the study of Acircngela Maia a researcher from Universidade do Minho (Braga Portugal) on the news and press about the ldquoforgotten menrdquo with PTSD in ldquoa world of suffering that Portugal insists to ignore three decades after the end of the Ultramar warrdquo31 In addition

29 C Feacutelix interviewed in Cuba Portugal in August 2007 30 S Abiacutelio interviewed in Pontinha Portugal in March 2006 31 In Notiacutecias Magazine 17 July 2007 the most widely read Portuguese magazine The author

advances a number of 300000 PTSD sufferers in Portugal a figure much higher than that mentioned in earlier studies This aspect was focused by the 1pm Telejornal (Television news) of the Portuguese channel TVI on 23 September 2007


on 15 October 2007 a three-hour groundbreaking debate on the colonial war was broadcasted by RTP1 the main public Portuguese channel This initiative was followed the day after by the first episode of a prime-time 18-episode docu-mentary on the conflict by the journalist Joaquim Furtado Advertised as ldquothe most awaited series of the last yearsrdquo this documentary series provoked some agitation in the Portuguese media ndash including the Internet with reader comments on the on-line versions of some Portuguese newspapers on blogs and personal and war veteransrsquo army companies websites32

One must also stress that apart from the traumatic nature that in the first place and due to the nature of this conflict characterised the war experiences of thousands of ex-combatants33 this prevalent public amnesia affects the memo-ries and identities of war veterans in several ways both on a personal and social level In effect the ex-combatants have to face the issues and difficulties inherent to the fact of having an experience that is not recognised and this also includes the practical benefits of recognition such as pensions and health care When interviewed the great majority of the war veterans allude to that situation in similar terms to those of these two examples

ldquoThey want to see us all dead to get rid of this [ ] so that they get rid of these burdens we are the burdens for this country this community [ ] within ten fifteen twenty years everything will be overrdquo34

ldquo[ ] there was nothing neither on the part of the State nor the military or social assistance no one cared no one called to ask how I was reacting no one paid atten-tion to the wives nothing nothing it was over it was over we were used the shirt is worn throw it away [ ] I feel like a used partrdquo35

There seems to be a dual concept of ldquorecognitionrdquo a public acceptance of the ex-combatantsrdquo war experiences and the claim for material compensation Although the two realities are strongly interrelated this latter aspect of social justice is fundamental within the Portuguese context These ex-combatants demand

ldquothat they should look at us through different eyes [ ] with humanity they used us and threw us away as if we were something one throws in a rubbish bin [ ] the politicians should have the good judgement of looking at us with other dignity with other insight thatrsquos been lacking so far For thirty long years I have been listening to very beautiful speeches [ ] was it worthwhile [ ] is that the compensation I receiverdquo36

Despite some legal diplomas of the 1980s 1990s and 2000s that reinforced their rights war veterans in general and especially war disabled remain largely

32 Jornal de Notiacutecias on 16 October 2007 stated that this documentary showed ldquothe war as it had never been seenrdquo is a ldquothorough view of the warrdquo Joaquim Furtado argued that ldquo[The colonial war] is a sensitive issue in Portuguese history and although nearly 40 years have passed it has never been addressed and clarified as it shouldrdquo in Correio da Manhatilde 16 October 2007 This was the most watched documentary on Portuguese television since 2000 (Diaacuterio de Notiacutecias 18 October 2007)

33 In 1999 it was estimated that about 30 of all ex-combatants suffer from PTSD (Ribeiro 1999 58) Recent studies point out a higher percentage Please see footnote ndeg 33

34 S Carlos interviewed in Abrantes Portugal August 2007 35 O Manuel interviewed in Costa de Caparica Portugal March 2006 36 B Antoacutenio interviewed in Campo Maior Portugal July 2007


unsupported37 In this context and mainly on the part of war veteransrsquo associations there has been an unrelenting fight for war pensions and allowances for the wounded psychological support for ex-combatants and their families and dependants These late 1990s and early 2000s campaigns led to political recognition and were a remark-able stimulus to public debate in a long and complex legal and political battle

In Portugal there are about 100000 retired war veterans 270000 are still working and an estimated 57000 are suffering from PTSD38 The Portuguese ex-combatants are a very heterogeneous group as they belong to very disparate backgrounds The veterans have in common the fact that they are men mostly born in the 1940s and 1950s and represent a generation whose shared identity was brought into existence by the war experience For the most part they were conscripts doing their military service ndash which after the legal changes of 1968 included besides the training period in Portugal at least two years in the African theatre of operations39 ndash and fighting was a ldquonational mission attributed to them by the political powerrdquo (Antunes 1995 7) Believing or not in what they were fighting for the choice was obedience insubordination (for instance by leaving the country before conscription) or desertion

For some now there is another difficult choice to make to remain silent or share their memories Many memories they choose to tell were until then ldquodeeply buried insiderdquo40 and some war veterans go as far as to admit they ldquostill live in the colonial warrdquo41 In general the group of the Portuguese ex-combatants is increasingly demanding public recognition Many veterans want the country to know about ldquotheir warrdquo as they say ndash they reject the collective silence pointing out the importance of their first-hand experience They feel that they ldquoare still for-gotten unsupported undervaluedrdquo42 Indeed at present coming into the foreground there is a sense of chronological distance ndash both personal and generational ndash that facilitates the telling of war memories

37 The Association for the Disabled of the Armed Forces (ADFA Associaccedilatildeo dos Deficientes das Forccedilas Armadas) was founded shortly after the end of the conflict in May 1974 and is a war veteransrsquo association specifically directed to the war disabled In 1976 regulation ndeg 4376 recognised the disabled of the armed forces the right to moral and material compensation Regulation ndeg 4699 (1999) created Rede Nacional de Apoio a government funded national psy-chological support network for those ex-combatants suffering from PTSD Regulation ndeg 92002 (or Lei dos Antigos Combatentes meaning Law of the Former Combatants) was passed in 2002 Recently on 21 November 2007 the Portuguese Government signed a protocol agreement with war veteransrsquo associations to treat war stress cases more quickly

38 Lusa (news agency) 18 March 2004 For an explanation on PTSD see footnote ndeg 30 See also footnotes ndeg 33 and 35

39 The legal diploma ndeg 2135 (Lei do Serviccedilo Militar Law of Military Service) passed on 11 July 1968 determined a legal increase in the duration of the military service and military obligations In practice this meant that the two-year period of incorporation was effectively extended to four years of which two had to be served in Africa See Cann 2001 2005 and Matos 2004 184 The war effort implied the mobilisation of increasingly large numbers of conscripts N Teixeira (2004 68-92) notes that in thirteen years of war the contingent of troops in the Portuguese Armed Forces increased about five and a half times

40 D Joseacute interviewed in Matosinhos Portugal in August 2007 41 F Daniel interviewed in Leccedila da Palmeira Portugal in August 2007 42 M Alfredo interviewed in Porto Portugal December 2004


Relatives comrades and veteransrsquo associations provide some kind of social support Currently there are over ten war veteransrsquo associations in Portugal some of them operating locally They organise meetings and other periodic activities These gatherings are becoming more popular and better advertised since the last decade In this particular public the veterans are able to find recognition and affirmation

Nowadays the war in itself is not the strict taboo it used to be and the sub-ject is mentioned much more often Indeed in the last five years there have been an increasing number of publications on the colonial war (including novels war memories autobiographies magazines) the same applies to exhibitions colloqui-ums documentaries TV programs films and other similar cultural forms as stressed earlier Likewise the last few years witnessed the nationwide emergence of a profusion of monuments memorials plaques and other commemorative events related to the colonial wars and their ex-combatants

Nonetheless it must be borne in mind that this revival of the war revolves around many complex factors concerning the nature of its remembrance and even the perpetuation of silence For example the fact that many ex-combatants have to live with their memories of the massacres of local populations and other vio-lent war episodes is deeply problematic In that respect some characterise their war experience as ldquoan authentic disasterrdquo admitting that ldquotoday I feel guilty for all thatrdquo43 Some uneasingly confess

ldquoThe fact is that I killed people do you understand I killed [ ] but I killed to avoid being killed and feel anguished about that do you understand I feel anguished [ ] I donrsquot feel at ease with myselfrdquo44

However and to cite one of my interviewees ldquoI have to be a normal being in society and that cannot be accomplished on my ownrdquo45 Seeking their identity these ex-combatants do not recognise themselves as murderers in their present role of common citizens In fact the more brutal aspects of war (such as the violent deaths the massacres of the locals the extreme combat situations and so on) are not easily mentioned For instance a quick analysis of some newspaper and magazine articles published in the last couple of years will provide the reader with a very descriptive and organic view of the war and its consequences a view which striving for impartiality and political correctness seems to avoid any kind of historical reflection at all costs This is the most common way the subject is treated by the media Few exceptions attempt at evaluating the past46

Oral history being a method that creates its own documents in the present highlights the fact that the voices of those who are willing to speak about the past are vital to history (and to the community in general) In this context the

43 O Manuel interviewed in Costa de Caparica Portugal March 2006 44 R Bento interviewed in Lisbon Portugal March 2006 45 A Alberto interviewed in Porto Portugal August 2007 46 For instance Os Soldados Tambeacutem Choram (Soldiers Cry Too documentary SIC 2001) and Atrocidades

da Guerra Colonial (Atrocities of the Colonial War magazine article Notiacutecias Magazine 17 March 1996) Another example is the news article A Casa da Vergonha (The House of Shame) on the war disabled who live in Lar Militar da Cruz Vermelha (Red Cross Military Home) in Lisbon in Correio da Manhatilde 23 April 2006


selective process of representation of the facts (at the same time individual and collective) and not the facts in themselves is what really matters

Interviewing war veterans of the Portuguese colonial war

My sample of about seventy ex-combatants comprises veterans of different age and class groups location educational backgrounds military rank different areas of fighting and periods of conflict and other situations My research seeks a greater understanding of the ways in which the colonial war is remembered and understood by the ones who fought it beyond any negative connotations attributed to the conflict In cases like this the importance of oral history resides in recov-ering hidden histories within a national history and in this context creating new ways in which the colonial conflict is remembered and viewed paving the way for historical reflection Many of my respondents are aware of this situation and express themselves in very clear terms as can be seen from this example

ldquo[ ] as long as there is a shame of facing things straightforwardly ndash itrsquos almost as if we have committed a crime in having been in the Ultramar then in that case how is it like that 800000 [ ] were so criminal to the point [ ] of being forgotten [ ] the fact that we have been there one canrsquot do anything about it we were there like it or not want it or not we were there [ ] fulfilling duty [ ] in truth it would be a question [ ] of facing things [ ] they exist and we canrsquot go on ndash denying them isnrsquot itrdquo47

It must be stressed that this specific topic is particularly challenging for the researcher Although the colonial war is not perceived as a traumatic episode by every ex-combatant for a large number of veterans this is still an extremely delicate issue and one that is not socially desirable to talk about In the words of one of my interviewees ldquowe try not to remember most of the things [ ] we try to forget I think it was a wasted time [ ] I lost the best years of my life in the colonial warrdquo48 In this context although not a therapy oral history in some instances represents a route to the integration of memories concerning traumatic experiences However I am fully conscious of the fact that this aspect is by no means the primary aim of my research

Methodologically this option poses the researcher a question related to inter-viewing individuals suffering from trauma Often rather difficult recollections come to the surface and as an interviewer I have to be prepared to deal with this kind of situation in an effective way I must also be prepared to listen to ndash and respect ndash controversial opinions which do not coincide with my personal views (eg racist comments defence of fascism and so on) Above all I believe that it is funda-mental to maintain an impartial approach that will ensure the well-being and integrity of both interviewee and interviewer and no research agenda is more important than that This principle applies to the interview situation and to its future consequences for both participants and psychological support must be sought whenever necessary In effect I already know how emphatic the relation-

47 M Alfredo interviewed in Porto Portugal December 2004 48 S Joseacute interviewed in Gaia Portugal August 2007


ship interviewer-interviewee may become for instance in that I have recurrent nightmares of battlefields and violent war episodes profusely described to me by the interviewees

Another issue to be considered is the fact that in Portugal this topic is met with reticence by many ex-combatants mainly due to its strong political implica-tions Thus I have already encountered some reserve and cautiousness in the way my questions are answered ndash or not Discontent and anger at the lack of public recognition material claims and even personal issues are often expressed too Of course these aspects affect the testimonies collected A great number of these ex-combatants are trying to come to terms with their past and prefer to remain silent about certain topics Also some respondents are not very familiar with the oral history approach to historical research and think they have nothing ldquoimpor-tantrdquo to say I have even been spoken to in insulting terms learning that oral history is ldquouseless talkrdquo and I should be doing ldquoreal historyrdquo through reading ldquogoodrdquo books and then listening to the advice of the ldquorightrdquo people

Most of my respondents are puzzled by the fact that I am a female researcher (actually when they write to me they invariably assume that I am a man and on the telephone I have been asked more than twice to pass the telephone to Dr Campos my ldquobossrdquo) Indeed for a great number of my respondents (if not the majority) it is quite hard to understand how a female in her late twenties can possibly have an interest in researching the Portuguese colonial wars Some have even asked if I have family reasons for studying this subject ndash which is not the case Indeed my main motivation as a member of the new generations born after the colonial conflict is to increase my knowledge on the subject and aim at a better understanding of its complexities Nonetheless and specifically in terms of the interview relationship my experience so far indicates that being a female to a great extent works in my favour since the male respondents often feel emo-tionally more comfortable to address topics they would not normally refer to a male interviewer As one respondent remarked ldquoI donrsquot even tell this to my chil-dren itrsquos the first time Irsquom talking about thisrdquo49 Also the age group to which I belong puts me somehow in the role of an element of a younger generation to whom the veterans pass on their experience In addition I am an outsider ie I am not a war veteran and thus am viewed as someone more objective and dispassionate about the war A sense of neutrality and safety is also added by the fact that I am doing academic research for a foreign University This combination of factors is not exactly common as far as interviewing war veterans is concerned and I believe this research benefits from it In any case I am fully aware that the existing basic social attributes always influence the interview relationship in several ways

In this case oral history acknowledges personal experience as integrated in a historic collective event that involved Portuguese society As emphasised earlier the Portuguese colonial conflict has been the focus of an enormous taboo This silence is not just personal and social it is also a political one It has to do with the collapse of the Portuguese Empire and its dictatorial past The democratic Portugal still associates the war with the former regime in a negative way chastising

49 B Joaquim interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007


those who took part in it with an upsetting silence making them wonder ndash ldquosuch a big thing passing unnoticed so many years of warrdquo50 ndash and conclude

ldquoSo far there hasnrsquot been a plausible explanation about what were effectively the motives of that war [ ] so far history of that period hasnrsquot been done and I think too much time is going byrdquo51

My research on this topic has been revealing a group ndash not just isolated indi-viduals ndash in search of a space where memories can be told and acknowledged Many of these men mostly in their fifties and sixties feeling that their war memories have not been affirmed by public rituals of remembrance demand recognition They want to speak but above all they want society to speak to them or at least admit their presence within itself The need to tell the story is urgent ndash especially because the huge majority of them have never been granted that opportunity ndash and gives voice to common concerns

ldquo[ ] what we were told was that we went to defend the motherland [ ] why does the motherland today reject me why does that same motherland that sent me to fight for her today thirty years later say to me ldquoI donrsquot even know you I donrsquot even want to speak about you [ ]rdquo52

It also must be added that perspectives can change over time within the same group If some interviewees admit that ldquonowadays I think it was a waste of time [ ] but at the time I thought differentlyrdquo53 others state that in the past they felt it was a

ldquohorrible and unjust colonial war [ ] we should feel ashamed of having been in that war not today [ ] with a greater distance in years [ ] I canrsquot think bad about a soldier who [ ] says he is proud of having served the motherlandrdquo54

In effect talking about this topic can be liberating One of my respondents con-fessed that being interviewed was worthwhile if not for anything else for the ldquosatisfaction of being able to have this conversation with you that I couldnrsquot have thirty years agordquo55

When asked about what they were fighting for during the conflict the answers of the ex-combatants are not homogeneous Some felt they ldquohad that obligation towards my [their] countryrdquo56 they ldquodid it in full conviction that my [their] motherland needed me [them] and I [they] wentrdquo57 they ldquowent to defend what was oursrdquo58 they ldquowent there to defend our motherland [ ] to defend something that rightly or not ndash thatrdquos none of my business ndash belonged to the Portugueserdquo59

50 L Orlando interviewed in Baixa da Banheira Portugal July 2007 51 F Manuel interviewed in Caldas da Rainha Portugal August 2007 52 M Alfredo interviewed in Porto Portugal December 200453 R Bento interviewed in Lisbon Portugal March 2006 54 P Eduardo interviewed in Seixal Portugal July 2007 55 L Joseacute interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 56 P Joaquim interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 57 F Daniel interviewed in Leccedila da Palmeira Portugal August 2007 58 R Francisco interviewed in Camarate Portugal March 2006 59 L Maacuterio interviewed in Trofa Portugal July 2007


Many recognise they ldquohave a certain pride of having gone to fight for my [their] country [ ] defend my [their] flag my [their] motherlandrdquo60 and admit they ldquofeel proud of having belonged to the Armed Forcesrdquo61

Many however feel differently about their participation in the colonial war and state that they were not there ldquofor my [their] motherland I was [they were] defending my [their] skinrdquo62 they had ldquoto kill not to dierdquo63 They ldquowere forced to go and defend something that had nothing to do with us [them]rdquo64 ldquoI was another one [ ] by imposition [ ] we went to attack the Africans in their own landrdquo65 Indeed ldquono no I didnrsquot go for the motherland [ ] honestly I didnrsquot go for the motherland I went for an obligation [ ] because I didnrsquot feel any patriotism in that respect66 ldquoToday I am aware that what I was doing there was nothing strictly nothing [ ] my participation was one of being cannon fodderrdquo67

Like many others one of my interviewees summarises his position in this way

ldquoI donrsquot feel honoured for having participated in a war like that I donrsquot feel ashamed for having been there [ ] I acknowledge my presence in [ ] a war that I consider unfair but in which I was forced to participate [ ] I was there because I was forced tordquo68

The vast majority of my respondents regrets the occurrence of this war which ldquowas an enormous waste of men meant a huge suffering for women for familiesrdquo and according to many ldquowas a war that could have been avoidedrdquo69 Very often they finish their testimonies with a question left unanswered ldquoseen at this distance all those men who died what for whyrdquo70

My training as a historian enables me to perceive silent gaps within Portuguese contemporary history a reality I am well acquainted with To a great extent I feel identified with the questions affecting the interviewees Not on a personal level but as a member of that same society these ex-combatants are talking about

There certainly is in Portugal an unsolved trauma ndash contradictory complex ndash surrounding the colonial war The researcher is unable to solve a national trauma However this does not mean that the oral historian is doomed to the passive role of the observer I thoroughly agree with F Lorenz (in Dawson et al 1999 95-112) when he stresses the importance of oral history as a means to study and show the origins of individual and social traumas In this sense I consider that oral

60 S Carlos interviewed in Abrantes Portugal July 2007 61 P Maacuterio interviewed in Vila do Conde Portugal July 2007 62 L Joseacute interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 63 V Joatildeo interviewed in Cuba Portugal August 2007 64 B Joaquim interviewed in Cuba Portugal December 2005 65 C Feacutelix interviewed in Cuba Portugal August 2007 66 T Joaquim interviewed in Barreiro Portugal March 2006 67 R Henrique interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 68 L Joseacute interviewed in Porto Portugal July 2007 69 F Antoacutenio interviewed in Valenccedila Portugal July 2007 70 D Joseacute interviewed in Matosinhos Portugal August 2007


history may work as social therapy against forgetting In fact studying social myths through the collection and interpretation of personal testimonies is an important step towards awareness and remembrance

Apart from this aspect I also believe it is a political statement I agree with P Thompson (2000) all history has its social purpose and thus a political one Indeed I found myself making a political decision by choosing this research topic in the sense that I am acting as a mediator for a largely marginalized grouprsquos history In Portugal this choice places me under a subtle political burden Just like the ex-combatants who are willing to talk I chose to challenge the official indifference As an interviewer and researcher I cannot help feeling somehow engaged in the ex-combatantsrsquo fight for recognition By listening to each ex-combatantrsquos story I am in a way positioning myself on their side there is almost an implicit complicity In this process together in every interview we are creating to cite R Grele a ldquohistorical narrativerdquo (Grele 1991 213) with a given meaning In every interview a different voice speaks and with each voice different percep-tions arise they stem from different experiences ndash both negative and positive ndash backgrounds geographical location time period personal sensitivity and such These different voices create a rich composite portrait of the diversity of war memories ndash in other words what that experience really meant for those who took part in it

Where overcoming silence may prove to be difficult or impossible oral history can mean an alternative way in which history about the colonial conflict is writ-ten and learnt When giving personal testimony its due importance oral historians keep memory alive and enable dialogue This is instrumental in the process of social exorcism eventually an integration of experience (individual and conse-quently also collective) occurs

A national armed conflict that lasted for thirteen years must not be forgotten When memory is a source of shame oral history may recover its lived memories exploring the ex-combatantsrsquo identity as contextualised by their respective society I strongly believe that assessing the ex-combatantsrsquo memories is fundamental to understanding the impact of the Portuguese colonial war As a mediator for an affirmation of their memories I hope I can make an indirect contribution towards overcoming individual and national shame Hopefully ndash and in the words of Alfredo M an ex-combatant ndash ldquoa time will come when someone will speak openlyrdquo71

September 2006 January 2008Acircngela CAMPOS

University of Sussex UK

Bibliography

Afonso A 1994 ldquoA guerra e o fim do regime ditatorialrdquo in J Medina (ed) Histoacuteria de Portugal Amadora Ediclube 333-356

Afonso A amp Gomes CM eds 2001 Guerra Colonial Lisbon Editorial Notiacutecias

71 M Alfredo interviewed in Porto Portugal December 2004


Albuquerque A 2003 ldquoThe Epidemiology of PTSD in the Adult Population in Portugalrdquo Acta Meacutedica Portuguesa (Lisbon) 16 2003 309-320

Alexander M Evans M amp Keiger J eds 2002 The Algerian War and the French Army 1954-62 Experiences Images Testimonies New York Palgrave Macmilan

Antunes JF ed 1995 A Guerra de Aacutefrica 1961-1974 Lisbon Ciacuterculo de Leitores 2 volsAshplant T Dawson G amp Roper M eds 2004 The Politics of Memory Commemorating War

New Brunswick Transaction Publishers Bebiano R 2002 ldquoA resistecircncia interna agrave guerra colonialrdquo in Histoacuteria (Lisbon) XXV (III)

40-47mdashmdash 2002 ldquoA esquerda e a oposiccedilatildeo agrave guerra colonialrdquo in RA Teixeira ed A Guerra do

Ultramar Realidade e Ficccedilatildeo Livro de Actas do II Congresso Internacional sobre a Guerra Colonial Lisbon Editorial Notiacutecias 293-313

Cann J 2001 ldquoUm notaacutevel feito de armasrdquo in RA Teixeira ed A Guerra Colonial Realidade e Ficccedilatildeo Livro de Actas do I Congresso Internacional Lisbon Editorial Notiacutecias 129-140

mdashmdash 2005 Counterinsurgency in Africa The Portuguese Way of War St Petersburg Florida Hailer Publishing

Dawson G 1994 Soldier Heroes British adventure empire and the imagining of masculinities London Routledge

Dawson G Leydesdorff S amp Rogers K eds 1999 Trauma and Life Stories International Perspectives London Routledge

Estado-Maior do Exeacutercito 1988 Resenha Histoacuterico-Militar das Campanhas de Aacutefrica (1961-1974) 1ordm volume Enquadramento Geral Lisbon Estado-Maior do Exeacutercito

Evans M 1997 The Memory of Resistance French Opposition to the Algerian War (1954-1962) Oxford Berg

mdashmdash 1997 ldquoRehabilitating the Traumatized War Veteran The Case of French Conscripts from the Algerian War 1954-1962rdquo in M Evans amp K Lunn (eds) War And Memory In The Twentieth Century Oxford Berg 73-85

Gomes C 2004 ldquoQuotidianos da Guerra Colonialrdquo in MT Barata amp NS Teixeira (eds) Nova Histoacuteria Militar de Portugal vol 5 Lisbon Ciacuterculo de Leitores 136-173

Grele R 1991 Envelopes of Sound The Art of Oral History London Praeger Guerra JP 1996 Descolonizaccedilatildeo Portuguesa ndash O Regresso das Caravelas Lisbon Dom Quixote

1996Kershaw G 1997 Mau Mau from Below Oxford James Currey Publishers Lorenz F 1999 ldquoThe Unending War Social Myth Individual Memory and the Malvinasrdquo in

G Dawson et al (eds) Trauma and opcit 95-112ndashndashndashndash ldquoEl Arco Inconcluso Malvinas veinte antildeos despueacutesrdquo in Todo es historia (Argentina) April

2002ndashndashndashndash 2003 Testigos de la Derrota Malvinas los soldados y la guerra durante la transicioacuten democraacutetica

argentina 1982-1987 (paper given at the University of London Institute of Latin American Studies October

Martelo D 2001 ldquoGuerra e sociedade Resistecircnciasrdquo in A Afonso amp CM Gomes (eds) Guerra Colonial Lisbon Editorial Notiacutecias 546-549

Matos L 2004 ldquoA Orgacircnica das Forccedilas Armadas Portuguesasrdquo in MT Barata amp NS Teixeira (eds) Nova Histoacuteria Militar de Portugal vol 4 Lisbon Ciacuterculo de Leitores

Medeiros P de 2000 ldquoHauntings Memory fiction and the Portuguese colonial warsrdquo in TG Ashplant G Dawson amp M Roper (eds) The Politics of War Memory and Commemoration London Routledge 201-221

Pinto A Costa 2001 O Fim do Impeacuterio Portuguecircs Lisbon Livros HorizontePlummer K 2001 Documents of Life 2 an invitation to a critical humanism London Sage

PublicationsRibeiro J 1999 Marcas da Guerra Colonial Porto Campo das Letras Ritchie D 2003 Doing Oral History A Practical Guide New York Oxford University Press


Roper M 2000 ldquoRe-remembering the Soldier Hero the Psychic and Social Construction of Memory in Personal Narratives of the Great Warrdquo in History Workshop Journal (Cary USA) 50 181-204

Rosaacuterio L 2001 ldquoGuerra Colonial versus luta armada de libertaccedilatildeordquo in RA Teixeira (ed) A Guerra Colonial Realidade e Ficccedilatildeo Livro de Actas do I Congresso Internacional Lisbon Editorial Notiacutecias 78-79

Sivan E amp J Winter eds 1999 War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Teixeira NS 2004 ldquoPortugal e as Guerras da Descolonizaccedilatildeordquo in MT Barata amp NS Teixeira (eds) Nova Histoacuteria Militar de Portugal vol 4 Lisbon Ciacuterculo de Leitores

Teixeira RA 1998 A Guerra Colonial e o Romance Portuguecircs Lisbon Editorial Notiacutecias ndashndashndashndash ed 2001 A Guerra Colonial Realidade e Ficccedilatildeo Livro de Actas do I Congresso Internacional sobre

a Guerra Colonial Lisbon Editorial Notiacuteciasndashndashndashndash ed 2002 A Guerra do Ultramar Realidade e Ficccedilatildeo Livro de Actas do II Congresso Internacional

sobre a Guerra Colonial Lisbon Editorial NotiacuteciasThompson P 2000 The Voice of the Past Oral History Oxford Oxford University Press Thomson A 1994 Anzac Memories Living with the Legend Melbourne Oxford University Press ndashndashndashndash 1998 ldquoAnzac memories putting popular memory theory into practice in Australiardquo in

R Perks R amp A Thomson (eds) The Oral History Reader London Routledge 300-310

copy Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden 2008 Lusotopie XV (2) 107-126Also available online ndash wwwbrillnl

ldquoWE ARE STILL ASHAMED OF OUR OWN HISTORYrdquoInterviewing ex-combatants of the Portuguese colonial war

(1961-1974)

This paper is focused on the memories of ex-combatants of the Portuguese colonial war in Africa (1961-1974) It addresses the Portuguese colonial conflict mainly in terms of its social memory exploring the importance of the ex-com-batantsrsquo individual interpretations and representations of the conflict This paper argues that the absence of extensive historical reflection on this subject highlights the importance of its lived memories especially as a means of challenging the idea of war memory as a source of shame for the veterans and for Portuguese society in general

Firstly the paper presents a brief overview of the current developments on the war memory field mentioning other national case studies Secondly it dwells on the public memory of the conflict and the historical identity of the Portuguese war veterans Thirdly and finally it will pose some questions on the process of collecting these personal memories namely the oral history practice involved in interviewing these ex-combatants

laquo Nous avons encore honte de notre histoire raquoEntretiens avec drsquoanciens combattants de la guerre coloniale portugaise (1961-1974)

Cet article est fondeacute sur les meacutemoires des anciens combattants de la Guerre coloniale portugaise en Afrique (1961-1974) et aborde le conflit surtout dans les termes de sa meacutemoire sociale explorant lrsquoimportance des interpreacutetations et repreacutesentations personnelles des anciens combattants relativement au conflit Lrsquoarticle soutient que lrsquoabsence drsquoune reacuteflexion historique eacutelargie sur le sujet souligne lrsquoimportance des meacutemoires veacutecues speacutecialement comme moyen de mettre en cause lrsquoideacutee que les meacutemoires de guerre sont motif de honte pour les veacuteteacuterans et la socieacuteteacute portugaise en geacuteneacuteral

Lrsquoarticle preacutesente drsquoabord briegravevement un eacutetat des travaux en matiegravere de meacutemoires de guerre Ensuite il porte sur la meacutemoire publique du conflit et lrsquoidentiteacute historique des veacuteteacuterans de guerre portugais Enfin il questionne le processus de recueil de ces meacutemoires personnelles notamment la pratique de lrsquohistoire orale inheacuterente agrave lrsquoacte drsquointerviewer ces anciens combattants

laquo Ainda temos vergonha da nossa histoacuteri raquoEntrevistas com antigos combatentes da guerra colonia portuguesa (1961-1974)

Este artigo centra-se nas memoacuterias de ex-combatentes da Guerra Colonial Portuguesa em Aacutefrica (1961-1974) e aborda o conflito colonial portuguecircs sobre-tudo em termos da sua memoacuteria social explorando a importacircncia das interpre-taccedilotildees e representaccedilotildees pessoais dos ex-combatentes relativamente ao conflito Este artigo sustenta que a ausecircncia de reflexatildeo histoacuterica alargada acerca deste assunto salienta a importacircncia das suas memoacuterias vividas especialmente enquanto meio de pocircr em causa a ideia de que as memoacuterias de guerra satildeo motivo de vergonha para os veteranos e para a sociedade portuguesa em geral

Em primeiro lugar o artigo apresenta um breve resumo dos actuais desenvol-vimentos na aacuterea das memoacuterias de guerra mencionando outros casos de estudo











































































































































Bibliography
















































































































































































Bibliography






































“We are still ashamed of our own History”

Documents

Transcript of “We are still ashamed of our own History”